MEND Dismisses National Dialogue, Calls For Focus On Corruption In Jonathan’s Government

The Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND) has dismissed President
Goodluck Jonathan's inauguration of an
Advisory Committee on the proposed National
Dialogue, describing it as "another deceit,
a distraction, waste of public funds and
time" which has "absolutely nothing else to
offer."

In a statement today, it called on members
of the National Assembly to rise up to their
responsibilities and justify their huge
salaries and fringe benefits.

"Reversing the injustice meted out
especially from the General Yakubu Gowon and
Olusegun Obasanjo military regimes on the
people of the Niger Delta, is one of such
responsibilities," the statement said.

It argued that in Nigeria's return to
democratic governance, the unjust distortion
of the Nigerian Constitution by military
dictators has been widely acknowledged.

"This mutilation of the pre-independence
constitution laid the foundation for
militancy in the Niger Delta. Military
dictators on account of oil, stripped the
indigenes of the Niger Delta of their land
and God given mineral resources which have
for 53 years been used to develop other
parts of Nigeria while the people of the
Niger Delta survive in abject poverty
without basic necessities such as potable
water, electricity, roads, schools,
habitable shelter to mention a few."

On the part of civilian administrations,
MEND said that understanding the illegality
of the constitution mutilation by the
military, they have been quick to amend
convenient sections of the constitution
carefully avoiding areas to do with the
theft of the land of the people of the Niger
Delta by individuals hiding under the cloak
of the "Federal Government" in collusion
with Western governments and their
accompanying oil companies, thus attempting
to legitimize an obvious crime.

"The fact that this crime has continued
unchallenged for more than four decades does
not make it more palatable to the indigenes
of the Niger Delta who have endured a
terrible crime which the world has found
convenient to ignore," the movement said.

"Instead of wasting time to rant over what
can be expressed in the opinion columns of
newspapers, or radio and television talk
shows at a reduced cost, our National
Dialogue should focus on Corruption: The
Mother of all terrors which is tantamount to
this government," MEND stressed.

In the absence of this constitutional step,
the group said it agreed with the late Otto
von Bismarck who once remarked, "The great
questions of the time will be decided, not
by speeches and resolutions, but by iron and
blood.

Tweet